{"collection":"Native American","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/nam/inu/eft/eft30.htm","path":"nam/inu/eft/eft30.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/nam/inu/eft/eft30.htm","text":"Eskimo Folk-Tales, by Knud Rasmussen, [1921]\nTHIS was in the old days, in those times when men were yet skilful rowers in kayaks. You know that there once came a great sickness which carried off all the older men, and the young men who were left alive did not know how to build kayaks, and thus it came about that the manner of hunting in kayaks was long forgotten.\nBut our forefathers were so skilful, that they would cross seas which we no longer dare to venture over. The weather also was in those times less violent than now; the winds came less suddenly, and it is said that the sea was never so rough.\nIn those times, there lived a man at Kang\u00e2rssuk whose name was Angusin\u00e3nguaq, and he had a very beautiful wife, wherefore all men envied him. And one day, when they were setting out to hunt eider duck on the islands, the other men took counsel, and agreed to leave Angusin\u00e3nguaq behind on a little lonely island there.\nAnd so they sailed out to those islands, which lie far out at sea, and there they caught eider duck in snares, and gathered eggs, and were soon ready to turn homeward again. Then they pushed out from the land, without waiting for Angusin\u00e3nguaq, who was up looking to his snares, and they took his kayak in tow, that he might never more be able to leave that island.\nAnd now they hastened over towards the mainland. And the way was long.\nBut when they came in sight of the tents, they saw a man going from one tent to another, visiting the women whom they left behind at that place. They rowed faster, and came nearer. All the men of that place had gone out together for that hunting, and they could not guess who it might be that was now visiting among the tents.\nThen an old man who was steering the boat shaded his eyes with his hand and looked over towards land.\n\"The man is Angusin\u00e3nguaq,\" he said.\nAnd now it was revealed that Angusin\u00e3nguaq was a great wizard.\nWhen the umiaks had left, and he could not find his kayak, he had wound his body about with strips of hide, bending it into a curve, and then, as is the way of wizards, gathered magic power wherewith to move through the air. And thus he had come back to that place, long before those who had sought his death.\nAnd from that day onwards, none ever planned again to take his wife. And it was well for them that they left him in peace.\nFor at that time, people were many, and there were people in all the lands round about. Out on the islands also there were people, and these were a fierce folk whom none might come near. Moreover when a kayak from the mainland came near their village, they would call down a fog upon him, so that he could not see, and in this manner cause him to perish.\nBut now one day Angusin\u00e3nguaq planned to avenge his fellow-villagers. He rowed out to those unapproachable ones, and took them by surprise, being a great wizard, and killed many of the men, and cut off their heads and piled them up on the side bench. And having completed his revenge, he rowed away.\nThere was great joy among the widows of all those dead hunters when they learned that Angusin\u00e3nguaq had avenged their husbands. And they went into his hut one by one and thanked him.","title":"Eskimo Folk-Tales: THE MAN WHO AVENGED THE WIDOWS","type":"page"}